China will pay out 8.6 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in subsidies for power generated from renewable energy sources in 2012, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The funding, co-issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Board, will be allotted by provincial financial authorities to grid companies that buy renewable power from generators at above-market tariffs.

Of the funds, 5.85 billion yuan will be spent in wind power, 723 million yuan in solar power and 2.02 billion yuan in subsidizing electricity produced from biomass, said the Ministry.

According to a Bloomberg report, the move will boost cash flows for renewable energy developers as the grid companies are mandated to use the capital to pay the fixed and above –market tariffs of clean energy output they purchased this year.

China, now the world’s largest energy consumer as well as the world’s largest carbon-emitting nation, pushes the use of renewable energy with a five-year target of raising renewable energy output by 11.4 percent and reducing carbon emissions by 17 percent per unit of gross domestic product, both by 2015. It also aims to cut its energy consumption per unit of G.D.P. by 16 percent.

Over the next three years, the country seeks to generate 100 gigawatts of wind, 21 gigawatts of solar and 13 gigawatts of biomass energy. – EcoSeed Staff

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